Customer Reviews

Legendary Islands of the Atlantic; A Study in Medieval Geography.

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Without question, this book is a good factual account of historic accounts and writings associated with islands now sunk but whose names have been passed down to us through the ages via books,legends and mariner's maps. This book was written by William H Babcock in 1922. The information upon which it is based, comes from historical resources, information and knowledge as existed at the time of writing in the early 20th Century. If written today it probably would include a more geological perspective explaining our knowledge about the last Ice Age and discoveries on how the melting ice affected sea-levels causing land to lift, in some cases, and causing submergence in others.

The opinion of the author is politely dismissive of the possibility that these islands did exist and tries to account for their continued legendary appearance as due to the heightened imagination ( 'philosophical romance' in Plato's case) of people at a time before Scientific method had established itself. Needless to say, the author neither disproves or proves their existence although he leans in favour of the former.

In terms of modern scientific proof not much has changed since the book was written and there is no more new knowledge today regarding the lost islands of Atlantis, Hy Brazil, Mayda and others mentioned in the book. Nevertheless, this book is a very good examination of all available sources at the time and shows many old maps, highlighting the discrepancies between maps of different eras. I should mention that the quality of the maps is not very good presumably because it is based on a copies of old maps. However the book is still an excellent source for discovering what ancient maps are available and how the cartographers made mistakes copying the information from one map to another.

In the end, you can make up your own opinion on whether you feel these islands ever existed. The author understandably, given his time, scoffs at the idea but, to his great credit, gives us an excellent account of all references he could find relating to these lost or legendary islands.

Personally, I believe that loss of land to the sea is a natural regular occurrence albeit over a long time. It normally takes thousands of years and these islands most likely did exist at one time and were sunk due to a catastrophe or the common phenomenon of hydro-isostasy and inundation at a time of high sea levels at the end of last ice age. Whatever rump of land was left was eventually eroded away.

The evidence unfortunately is buried deep in the sands at the bottom of the Atlantic. But whatever your viewpoint, I would recommend reading this well written book.

Anyone familiar with the modern contretemps over the authenticity of the so-called Vinland Map, a purported chart drafted around 1440 showing, for the first time on any map, the Northeastern Canadian shore as discovered by Viking explorers in the 11th century, will appreciate geographer Babcock's efforts to explain a score or so of other apparently mythical places once engraved on navigator's atlases. The still sought-after Atlantis is a good starting point for Professor Babcock, who not only provides explanations of how and why non-existent places got recorded on navigational aides, but also gives readers a nice tour of early exploration and myth-making. Since this book was published almost 90 years ago, there have been other efforts to trace the origins of map-making errors, notably some essays by Eva Taylor in the 1950s and 1960s and Woods Hole hydrographer Henry Stommel's Lost Islands, published in 1984. Stommel only deals with places that were shown on Admiralty charts, a practice begun by the British Hydrographic Office in 1795, so much of the lore described by Babcock is missing from his study. Babcock does show prudent skepticism about most of these alleged sightings and visits to places no longer on the map but leaves open the possibility that some of them may represent actual places somehow either mis-located or mysteriously disappeared. The book is an excellent baedeker for those who might want to create their own fictional places in a novel, poem or work of art.

Horrible book. Publisher simply left out 2 chapters(approx 75 pages), even though they were listed in table of contents. Replacement book was sent with exact same problem. Poor quality from the publisher.